Update: Mario Nicolais, an attorney at Hackstaff Law Group, said his firm represents Citizens for Free and Fair Elections, but had no input on the content of the fliers. He declined to specify who was behind the mailer, but said he would ask that a representative of the group if they wished to call me. “We are a law firm, and we are the legal agent for hundreds of businesses, helping them the campaign laws, filing documents and things like that,” he said. “We haven’t had any discussions about this client with the secretary of state.” I will update this blog again, if I hear from the group or get more information about them.

Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Sheila Reiner[2], a Republican, was called out for the Colorado County Clerks Association’s support of an elections bill that has divided the Colorado General Assembly the past week. So far, the bill has passed two House committees and a floor vote entirely along party lins — Democrats for, Republicans against. The mailer suggests she’s in cahoots with President Obama and state Democrats.

“I never thought that my name would be associated with the president,” Reiner told Charles.

The Junction Daily Blog[3] Facebook site reported that La Plata County clerk Tiffany Lee Parker[4], another Republican, was targeted with the same flier. (In Mesa County, Republicans out number Democrats more than 2 to 1, but in La Plata the registered voters are split almost evenly between the two parties, according to the Secretary to State’s numbers[5].)

The return address on the campaign-style flier links it to a heretofore unknown group called Citizens for Free and Fair Elections atop a Blake Street address used by Hackstaff Law Group[6] — the Denver firm where Scott Gessler practiced until 2010, when he was elected Colorado’s secretary of state. The firm’s practice includes elections, candidates and campaign finance. Gessler has been a staunch opponent of the bill. His spokesman. Rich Coolidge, said via e-mail Sunday night that Gessler was not behind the fliers.

“The Secretary has no connection to this group nor the mailer and left The Hackstaff Law Group 2.5 years ago,” he said. “To insinuate otherwise is completely unfair and reckless.”

A message left at Hackstaff’s general office number was not returned Sunday. I’ll update this post If I hear back.

The fliers state, “If HB 1303 passes we would have no way to verify a voter’s identity –no way of knowing if a voter is even eligible or has voted in another state! Felons, illegal aliens — even the deceased could cast ballots.”

Supporters of the bill have said such claims are all wrong; the way voters are registered would remain the same, and a statewide database would help weed out fraud, not make it easier to pull off. The legislation’s chief features are mailing ballots to every voter in the state, including those who were previously considered inactive, and allowed registration all the way to Election Day. Opponents contend allowing people to register the day of the election provides no time to let safeguards work before a bad vote is cast.

Gessler has argued the proposal has a myriad of other problems, including unrealistic ideas of how much it would cost and how difficult it would be to have in place before next year’s elections. While backers see an overall savings, Gessler said it’s an unnecessary use of taxpayers’ money that weakens the integrity of elections, which would discourage, not encourage, voter participation.

“I’m dead-set opposed to this,” he told me a couple of weeks ago, when we first discussed the bill, after I lucked into a draft of the bill[7] the day before it was introduced.